Abstract: Certain examples relate to a material management station for use in an additive manufacturing process. In these examples a metering system is applied to measure the amount of build material transported into the material management station from refillable containers. Data describing the metered amount of build material is communicated over a data communication network and remotely compared to an allowance of usage stored in an administration system. Control messages are communicated to the material management station preventing or allowing further use of the build material in line with the allowance usage.

Abstract: In an example, a method includes determining a training dataset for an inference model to evaluate spatial arrangements of objects to be generated in additive manufacturing. Determining the training dataset may include obtaining, by at least one processor, a temperature distribution for each of a plurality of spatial arrangements of objects to be generated in additive manufacturing. The method may further include obtaining, using at least one processor, an indication of thermal interaction for each spatial arrangement based on the obtained temperature distribution.

Abstract: A method comprising obtaining an input, wherein the input comprises a three-dimensional representation of an object, the three-dimensional representation comprising a plurality of portions, wherein each of the plurality of portions has associated portion properties, and obtaining printer properties of a plurality of printing devices. The printer properties correspond to at least one feature of the printing devices; and the method assigns each of the plurality of portions to respective ones of the plurality of printing devices by comparing the portion properties with the printer properties, and assigning the portion to one of the printing devices based on the comparison, such that each of the plurality of portions has a respective assigned printing device. Each of the portions are then provided to its respective assigned printing device.

Abstract: Certain examples relate to a material management station for use in an additive manufacturing process. In these examples a metering system is applied to measure the amount of build material transported into the material management station from refillable containers. Data describing the metered amount of build material is communicated over a data communication network and remotely compared to an allowance of usage stored in an administration system. Control messages are communicated to the material management station preventing or allowing further use of the build material in line with the allowance usage.

Abstract: A remote printing system comprises a job sending component arranged to transmit a print job comprising one or more print files and an indicator of one or more job receivers to a remote printing server. The remote printing server is arranged to receive print jobs from one or more job sending components and to store the print jobs. The server is further arranged to receive notification of acceptance of at least a portion of a print job from one or more of the job receivers. A job receiving component is associated with a job receiver. The job receiving component is arranged to receive any of the portions of print jobs accepted by the associated job receiver and to transmit the accepted portions to a printer for printing.

Abstract: A remote printing system comprises a job sending component arranged to transmit a print job comprising one or more print files and an indicator of one or more job receivers to a remote printing server. The remote printing server is arranged to receive print jobs from one or more job sending components and to store the print jobs. The server is further arranged to receive notification of acceptance of at least a portion of a print job from one or more of the job receivers. A job receiving component is associated with a job receiver. The job receiving component is arranged to receive any of the portions of print jobs accepted by the associated job receiver and to transmit the accepted portions to a printer for printing.